Chapter 36
Lexi
Kieran’s air magic tore down the door within the large archway in one of the castle entrances. Souls surrounded her, but not the one she wanted. Not her kid.
“Hey, you!” She stopped at the first spirit she saw.
Lightning crawled the walls around them.
Rocks rolled down the hallway, ready for action.
Kieran stopped beside her, looking at the slight man with a plethora of jewels adorning a strangely styled jacket.
“Have you seen the human they brought here?”
The man looked behind him.
“Yes, I can see you. Have you seen the human they brought here? To the castle. Where might I find the human?”
“Oh. Yes,” the spirit said, still incredibly surprised. “The human. I remember seeing that human. Very little—”
“Where?” Lexi yelled.
His face closed down into a mask of pompous indifference. Before he could respond, Kieran stepped into his face.
“You will tell me where you saw that human,” he demanded, and the spirit’s face went slack.
In a moment they were running, following the spirit, who was suddenly feeling very helpful. Kieran did have a way with unvoiced threats.
The halls seemed empty for a castle and kingdom of its size. What must’ve been servants up the way stopped in their tracks when they saw the rocks and people running. Their eyes widened at the lightning, and then they scattered out of the way.
Farther in and another ghost joined them, this one higher in status and laden with so many jewels that they would’ve torn off his jacket in life. He kept pace with the first until he learned what was going on, and then he turned and put up his hands as though he were about to do magic.
“Nope.” Lexi grabbed him up and kept hold. If they happened across a body, she’d have a powerful spirit to fill it with.
“Unhand me!” the spirit yelled as the first slowed.
“What is it?” Lexi asked their leader.
“Well…” He pointed at an archway.
The doors stood open, and Boman and Donovan rushed forward to check it out.
“Looks like a hall of some sort—” Boman started.
“It’s the Court Hall—” said the spirit.
“Do you feel that?” Mordecai asked, looking right. He put up his finger as though he were testing the direction of the breeze.
“You do not belong here, you vile humans!” the spirit she held yelled.
“After this, I do not know where she might be,” their spirit leader said apologetically.
A fae male spirit popped out through the doors of the hall, his expression curious. “More humans?”
“There.” Lexi flung her finger at the fae. “Kieran, he knows about Daisy.”
“I smell her.” Mordecai ripped at his clothes. “I smell her!”
Mordecai shifted into his wolf form as a female servant edged around the corner.
She had dark, lank hair draping either side of a pinched face and a dainty frame.
Her movements were much too graceful compared to the other servants scurrying around, and the way she held herself, as though playing up her stature, reminded Lexi of Daisy.
This female was probably just as devastating in a fight.
The petite woman put up her hand, pointing down the hall. Mordecai was already running.
“Go, go, go!” Lexi dragged the one spirit behind her, making him bob on the ground as he went. It wouldn’t hurt him, but manhandling was incredibly degrading and annoying to his kind. It was the little things.
That same female was up the way, at the corner, pointing. The soul was the same. Did they have Apporter magic in this place?
Then again, another corner farther along. That female was creepy as fuck.
“Did you see her eyes?” Zorn asked from somewhere behind.
“No, why—”
Bria cut off as a strange throb changed the pressure in the air. The walls seemed to bow. A great heaviness filled the corridor and pressed on Lexi from all sides.
“What is that?” Henry shouted from behind.
A breeze Lexi couldn’t feel externally swirled her insides. The lighting flickered. The walls waved, pushing out and leaning back in. The floor looked like the wood had turned into waves.
“Magic,” someone said, out of breath.
It did feel like magic. Like something present but unidentifiable. It felt like the wylds after one of those magical, tropical rains. It felt like a lightning storm, but without the bolts of lightning. It felt like death and rebirth all rolled into one.
Mordecai whimpered and ran faster. He’d always had a sixth sense when it came to Daisy. Since the moment she’d entered their world all those years ago, Mordecai had always kept track of her. Been there for her. Supported her.
Right now, he was worried about her, and that meant, despite the odds, she had something to do with this.
Lexi put on a burst of speed. She gave everything she had, following Mordecai. He wasn’t even sniffing anymore, just running with all his heart. Running blindly toward his sister.
The ground shook, but it wasn’t the magic from earlier.
She could feel the tides, this place surrounded by water and Kieran having control.
He was bringing up the currents in case he needed them.
Filling the air. Fae thought they were so far above humans, but they didn’t know dick about Demigods.
They were about to get an education, just like all the fae before them.
Mordecai turned a corner and skidded to the side.
Lexi saw why. A cluster of well-organized individuals guarded a plain door in the plain, somewhat small hallway.
Hair wild, they all had buns or knots on top of their heads, braids every which way, and flowing hair down their backs and some over their shoulders.
They wore plain servants’ attire but stood with weapons like they’d been born to them. The guard.
“Get out of the way and we won’t kill you,” Lexi said in a loud, clear voice. She wasn’t sure if she was lying. That seemed like the fastest approach.
Her crew came up behind, breathing hard as they caught up. They filed in around her as Mordecai whimpered. They didn’t have much time.
“What are you?” a female asked, stepping to the front of the others.
Lexi continued forward. “Your ticket to the underworld if you don’t move out of my way. I’ve come for the human. I will be taking her with me. Fight or move. Choose now.”
A male stepped up with the female. He put his large hand on the female’s shoulder. He had wheat-blond hair and a bunch of shit tying his beard tightly to his chin. He almost looked like a Viking who’d lost a bet with a hairstylist.
“What are you to her?” the male asked.
“They’re human,” someone else said.
“She chose this.” Another female stepped up, red-headed, tall, and very fierce. “Daisy chose this. She is helping save Faerie.”
“She doesn’t give two fucks about Faerie,” Amber said from the back, and it was surprising that she would speak up. Or maybe not, since she’d always had a soft spot for Daisy. “She’d burn this place to the ground if she could. Get out of the fucking way or I will gut you.”
The female put up her hands, palms out. She had a big smile for some reason.
“You know her well. You must be this family she speaks of. I shouldn’t be surprised that you survived the fringe and the wylds and have come to her rescue.
I am…but I shouldn’t be. She has already burned several royal chambers, with our help.
And you’re right, she mostly doesn’t care about us.
But she does care about her family. You.
She is helping you and your kind. She is balancing the magic of Faerie and strengthening the fringe.
She alone has the power to do this. She chose this. ”
The Viking said, “She’s playing hero.” Then he sang in a monotone voice, “Na-na-na-na-na.”
Mordecai bristled. Lexi looked over at Kieran with wide eyes. That was definitely Daisy, and it sounded like they knew her well enough to know who her family was and the type of things she said.
“Chose what?” Lexi demanded, walking closer. She reached out and grabbed hold of a few spirit boxes, ready to rattle them if needed and easily kill them if necessary.
“Chose to sacrifice herself,” the female said, losing her smile. “For you.”
Emotion welled up unexpectedly. “No,” Lexi said. “She doesn’t have magic. She only has a Demigod’s gift. My gift. That’s it—”
“She has Faerie magic,” the Viking said. “Or…the magic Faerie gods gift one human at a time. Your magic was the final piece.”
“What?”
“A non-magical human, enhanced by man—”
The female pointed at their group. “Her trainer. Zorb.”
“Zorn,” another male said. “She was always repeating his teachings.”
“Right, yes. Zorn.” The Viking nodded. “Ah. And that is…you, then?”
Zorn stepped up beside Lexi, his machete clutched in a tight fist. The pressure in the hallway increased. A strange sound reverberated through the door.
“A non-magical human enhanced by man—Zorn’s training—and blessed by the gods.
” The Viking pointed at Lexi. “Your blood gift. You were the final piece to create the chalice. That thing she touched and made her fall over? The items that lit up in her presence? Those are chalices. And through your…help, she is saving our realm, and indirectly your realm as well.”
“No,” Lexi said, her knees feeling weak. She remembered that diamond thing. The other items lighting up. “But—”
A familiar scream tore through her thoughts. She lost all sense of reason.
She was running for the door. Everyone in her way wilted, hitting the ground with screams of their own. She didn’t kill them. They knew Daisy and held no animosity toward her. That meant Daisy must’ve liked them, or she would’ve made their lives a living hell.
She reached the door, but a big man was blocking the way, grabbing his chest and rolling from side to side.
“Move!” she shouted, shoving at the door over his wilted form.
The scream cut off. Kieran bent on one side for the male and Zorn was on the other. Lexi had to push back to give them room, and then they were clear, opening the way. Zorn got in first, Lexi right behind.
“No, Daisy—” A guy knelt on the ground. His face was buried in Daisy’s neck, his arms wrapped around her tightly. “Wait for me. I won’t stay here long without you. Please.”
Daisy lay still, her eyes closed, her face relaxed.
“Oh no, Daisy.” Lexi called up the veil.
It blazed to the right, more iridescent than in the human realm but doing the same thing.
Within it, that male from before—that god—stood with his hands crossed over his chest and a smug smile below gleaming violet eyes.
Behind him, dimming, was Daisy’s back as she walked through.
She had succumbed to the siren call of the afterlife.
Or, more likely, the god had sent her on her way, erasing any hesitancy to cross.
“No! Daisy! Come back. I can fix this. Don’t leave your body. We can fix this!”
“She’s mine now,” the god said.
She fixed him with a hard glare, kicking the chalices out of her way as she went to the fae holding Daisy’s body.
“She’s not yours,” she told the god. “She might be in your house, but she is not yours. If I have to walk in there with you, I will fight her back out, you miserable sonuvabitch. Now fuck off and let me work.”
She used a gush of her power to shove the veil away. He could’ve forced the issue, but he didn’t. Maybe he wasn’t all that invested when she wasn’t messing with spirit. Good.
The fae male hadn’t looked up. He clutched Daisy’s body so damn tightly, breathing so heavily into her that it looked like he was on the verge of breaking. His emotion was genuine. And suddenly, Daisy’s willingness to help made a lot more sense. Love made a person do a lot of stupid shit.
But he was in the way.
Lexi grabbed him by his hair and yanked him back.
His blast of magic nearly made her black out. She reacted, as did Kieran, two streams of magic fighting his. It almost wasn’t enough. This fucker was powerful.
Zorn didn’t care. He muscled his way in, grabbed the fae, and ripped him away. Bloody gashes tore lumps of skin from Zorn’s arms and chest, but he didn’t so much as flinch.
“If you value Daisy’s life, you will let Alexis work,” Zorn growled.
The fae stilled, confused, reddened eyes blinking. His hair was mussed, and his face was the picture of agony. Worse, his gaze was hollow. He’d just watched—maybe helped—someone he loved die.
She would not be gone forever.
No time for sobbing, Lexi pushed up her sleeves and bent beside her kid.
“What did she die of?” she barked, feeling the spirit box with her magic. All the prongs that were needed to hold the soul in place had been shattered. Daisy never did do anything by halves.
Her body wasn’t cold yet, though. It wasn’t beyond use. If they could heal her body and fix some of the prongs, using spirit to patch everything together, they could keep Daisy alive.
They needed that soul, though. She couldn’t cling to life without her soul.
“What did she—” Lexi cut off as a plethora of thoughts and images rolled through her head, so fast she almost didn’t grasp them.
Then she saw, through the fae’s mind, his thoughts, his feelings.
She saw the whole thing—the pain, the magic, the amount of sheer power that had gone through her kid’s body.
It had fried Daisy and evacuated the soul.
But the magic hadn’t lingered. It hadn’t stayed.
It had blasted through, like electricity looking for ground.
She needed to be jump-started. Her heart, it needed to be—
“Faelynn!” the fae yelled, command in his voice.
A female ran in on shaky limbs and with a deathly pale face. She hadn’t gotten over the fright from Lexi’s magic. That was pretty common the first couple times.
“She’s a healer,” the fae said. “She can help.”
Kieran took Lexi by the shoulders. “You focus on those prongs and the soul. You need to pull her back and get her soul in this body. If she’s gone too long, the body won’t be able to repair. I’ll work on her heart.”
Tears dripping from her eyes, she moved to Daisy’s feet and bowed her head. She worked those prongs, rebuilding, and got ready to call Daisy back over the line. She got ready to fight her way through that guy standing in the way. She could do this. She had to do this.